Zuckerman takes Big Apple awards

At last night's Big Apple awards held at the Rainbow Room for PRSA's New York chapter, keynote speaker Mort Zuckerman gave the audience of 300 a little history lesson: it's been 70 years since the country experienced an economic crisis like the one we're in now, he said. Zuckerman proceeded to lecture NYC's PR glitterati on the factors that lead to the downturn, leading them from poor decisions on Main St. to the Wall St. global buys of crappy mortgages. Still, Zuckerman, said, we are a country built on hope. PR, with its unique ability to spin toward the positive, buoys that hope, he concluded.

Zuckerman, too, was in good spirits, punctuating his rather gloomy speech with jokes, including ribbing Howard Rubenstein of Rubenstein PR for tricking him into giving the keynote address by asking him if he believed in "free speech."

Winners included: The “Best of the Best” award for Ketchum's “Think Before You Ink Kodak Revolutionizes the Inkjet Industry” campaign; the John W. Hill award for the leadership practices of James E. Murphy, chairman and CEO of Murphy & Co., ; and Healthstar PR's Best Use of Research, Measurement and Evaluation award for its GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare campaign. For a complete list of the winners, see the chapter's release.